Look at what Pioneer brought out for $200

[anamorphic96]

So I listened to the BS21 and FS51 at Best Buy the other day and compared to a handful of Polk and Klipsch speakers. I was thoroughly underwhelmed. They didn't do anything at all for me.

I agree with you as well. They sounded ok but nothing special at Best Buy. But I took a chance and bought the BS21's and played with them for a couple of weeks and became thoroughly impressed.

They are on the warm side and need some power to wake them up but they sound very clean and open when turned up. Very impressive for 99.00 in my book. In fact they easily compete with much more expensive speakers. I became so impressed I ordered the BS-41's(149.00) and sent the 21's back. The BS-41's do everything the 21's do but have good bit more bass and work much better in larger rooms. Considering the center is only 80.00 I might get it and try out a new front stage in my HT.

 

[zieglj01]

In home audition is the best way to do it - they are not voiced, to stand
out in the store. They do work best, with a strong receiver.

 

[jonnythan]

I was listening with a Pioneer 1021 and a (fairly unimpressive) Klipsch SW-450 sub. I just found the Polk TSi300 and 700 did everything well, though they got muddy in the lower midranges; the Klipsch Icon speakers were very clear but bright and lacking in detail; and the Pioneers just sounded... cheap. Reminded me of these old Radio Shack speakers my dad used to have. Maybe they just desperately needed some EQing.

 

[3db]

In home auditions are the best if possible. I found most retailer's acoustics dreadful and self defeating.

 

[krabapple]

Even in-home auditions mainly tells you how well the loudspeaker mates with that particular room. It's not necessarily telling you how well the loudspeaker performs fundamentally. Move it to another house/room, and the loudspeaker that sounded mediocre might sound much better (or worse).

There's a reason NRC et al. do anaechoic or pseudo-anaechoic measurements. And there is good reason to pay attention to objective measures of loudspeaker performance that have been linked to trained listener preference (Toole/Olive). I personally don't give much weight to anecdotal reports that speaker X sounded great/terrible in a sighted audition in a Best Buy show room/someone's house...unless I know a lot more about the person and the room.

I'd like to know an answer to this too (add behringers to the list?):

But now I want to know, price aside, which bookshelf speakers has the best measurements?

Infinity P162, NHT SuperZero, This Pioneer? Or any other bookshelf less than $300/pr.

 

[ichigo]

Cabinet accelerometer measurements, spectral decay plot, THD graphs, will tell you a lot more about the difference between the $200 Pioneers and a pair of $25,000 speakers than a FR plot.

 

[3db]

I haven't seen a review yet of speakers costing more than $20Gs that did NOT have a ragged frequency response and yet receive glowing hyperboles of audiophile reviewers hell bent on saying they're worth every cent

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I haven't seen a review yet of speakers costing more than $20Gs that did NOT have a ragged frequency response and yet receive glowing hyperboles of audiophile reviewers hell bent on saying they're worth every cent

The reviewers may be giving false glowing reviews, but just read what John Atkinson says in his measurements. Basically he will ONLY praise speakers that have superb measurements. He tries to be "neutral" with all the other speakers. Look at J. Atkinson's comments about the $22K Klipsch speakers and the $25K B&W 800 Diamond. He tries not to dog them & offend them, but notice he pretty much has nothing great to say about them.

So basically if JA does not say that the speakers have "superb measurements", then he means to say that they measure poorly overall.